Russell Williams

Canadian Diabetes Association

Russell Williams is a passionate advocate for innovation in health care. He is Vice President, Government Relations and Public Policy of the Canadian Diabetes Association and Chair of Board of the Canadian Frailty Network.
Russell was President of Innovative Medicines Canada (formerly Rx&D), an association of over 50 innovative life sciences companies from 2004 to 2016. From 1989 to 2004 he served as the Member of the National Assembly for the riding of Nelligan in Montréal where he advocated for many causes, including better patient care, improved emergency services, increased research and development, as well as reform for handicapped services.

For years public health authorities have been sounding the alarm. But the tone has become more urgent in recent years -- with terms like "burning platform" and "crisis" increasingly used. This is having a profound impact on the health of millions of Canadians, and costs our health-care system billions of dollars per year.

The Canadian Pediatric Society has consistently called for an integrated national research strategy for children that will help streamline clinical investigation processes, and attract clinical trials from around the world to make research opportunities available to Canadian children and researchers.

We don't have to give up all our guilty pleasures to be healthy. By focussing on wellness and becoming our own health advocates, we can enjoy all of what life has to offer, the idea being that disease prevention is easier than treatment. The fact is that there are some very common sense things we can do to make wellness and health a personal priority.

For the past three years World AIDS Day on December 1st has been themed, "Getting to zero," which means zero new HIV Infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. Even with these promising new developments however, we cannot underestimate the challenges ahead in responding the AIDS epidemic. More than 71 thousand Canadians were estimated to be living with HIV in 2011 and there were 3,175 new HIV infections. Worldwide, there are a staggering 36 million people living with AIDS.

We're fortunate to live in an era where the average life expectancy is today over 80 years young. Unfortunately, the flip-side of Canadians living longer and generally healthier is that many older seniors experience multiple health problems -- a common yet under-recognized health state known as frailty.

A strong bio-economy is essential for Canada to compete on the global stage. Each year, the bio-sector welcomes hundreds of new college and university graduates in all areas of the industry who are eager to enter the workforce and help fuel this exciting sector. That said, finding a match between the skill and the opportunity can be a challenge to both the graduate and the employer.

The acceleration of research and development of sophisticated biologic medicines and vaccines to more effectively prevent and treat disease has given rise to a form of healthcare known as personalized medicine.

Improving the climate for clinical trials will also attract research investment which will in turn create jobs in healthcare and within the knowledge economy for Canadians. Clinical trials are the building blocks for innovation in healthcare and allow Canadians access to life changing innovations

There are more than 7,000 rare disorders and, by definition, each one of them impacts a small number of people. But overall, one in 12 Canadians suffers from a rare disease and about two-thirds of them are children. Adopting a strategy will give hope to many Canadian families who are struggling with the patchwork support systems throughout the country.

The importance of quality palliative care gets overshadowed by our national debate over euthanasia or medically assisted death. There is a lack of understanding about what palliative care means and how it can help to ensure that we and those we love are able to make that journey to the end of life with dignity.

What was once seen as a novel concept is not only now accepted but being embraced by Canadians and increasingly their business and governments. Caregiver policies illustrate the need to better assess the overall value that these types of intervention can contribute to our healthcare system and to our society.

As the CETA negotiations have progressed, our community has seen an opportunity to make Canada a more attractive destination for global investment in health research by modernizing our Intellectual Property rules as they pertain to the life sciences.

The NewScientist reported on a computer program that can identify rare conditions by analyzing a photograph of a face. The software developed at the University of Oxford can recognize 90 disorders by analyzing facial features such as lips, brows and the shape of eyes.

As we reflect on Canada Day, we can be very proud of the role we play globally in maternal child and newborn health. Thousands of doctors, nurses and field workers contribute daily across the globe supported by hundreds of thousands of Canadian volunteers and donors.

While the international competition in research and development is formidable, anybody who gets to work with our young people knows that Canada's future is bright. They continue to rank globally at or near the top in math and literacy skills and our 15 year olds just ranked first in problem solving.

As Canadians embrace and adopt the latest technologies to manage their healthcare, they have created a parallel health system and our healthcare providers and governments are empowered to continuously ensure that patients receive the best treatment possible.

Over the past few years, we have seen rapid change in health research with the adoption of faster and more powerful information technology being applied to our growing understanding of genomics and th...

Incremental innovation has a real positive impact for patients -- it brings to bear the latest scientific thinking to improve safety, tolerability, efficacy and quality of medicines. Would we have ever realized the iPhone 5 if not for the hundreds of versions before it, as far back as the first cell phones in the 1980s? Like medicines and vaccines, each new version demonstrates incremental innovation -- tangible improvements that matter to people.

The health sector appears to be lagging in the adoption of this kind of technological innovation despite the fact that information technology and smartphones are an integral part of our daily lives. The benefits of leveraging technological advances in the health world seem abundantly clear yet Canada continues to lag behind many countries.

In our quest for solutions to big health care challenges, we can sometimes overlook the low-hanging fruit -- i.e. the small, practical changes that can bring about substantial savings and better health outcomes. Case in point: the cost-savings opportunities in medication adherence through incentives, health IT and data applications.